Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum My 1886 Steinway B - finally back from the workshop!

This is a Steinway B, S/N 60103, pre-assembled in New York with final assembly done in the Hamburg factory in 1886.

The instrument got a complete - and badly done - overhaul in 1978, including new strings, shims for the cracked soundboard, with the soundboard screwed to the ribs. New hammers in 2012, done by someone who didn't know that back checks in 1886 were different and didn't go well with new hammers.

In 2018 complete rebuild of the action with new capstans, repetition levers/whippens, making hammers lighter by sanding the sides, new strike line for 42 hammers, polishing all metal parts. It played just beautifully after that, but it also became painfully obvious that the acoustic assembly has some weaknesses that over the past couple of months became to obvious to ignore: 40 year old strings with each unison having a different set of harmonics per string, cracks in the bridge with one particular note that stood out like a sore thumb, so I've finally given in and took a rather generous offer from a close friend for a rebuild the acoustic assembly, i.e. new pins, strings, agraffes and new bridge caps from top to bottom.

It came back to my home yesterday and now is played and tuned alternately to make it settle into some sort of equilibrium as possible. Next week a concert technician will come and give the hammers a thorough workout and voice them into something beautiful.

This is from today after little practice and lots of tuning:

Thanks for being brave and uploading a video-- I'm not able to listen to it carefully right now, but it would be fun to hear a recording of the exact same thing after the next round of work by the technician. Although I know I've heard your piano before the latest work was done to it, you don't happen to have a recording of the same Brahms for that time?

Could be fun to track the evolution of the piano.

The Brahms is indeed my signature piece to document the evolution of the piano. I've always recorded a version of it whenever something was done to the piano and recording equipment, right from the very first day of its arrival, including really rusty playing after not practicing for more than 20 years. Might actually be a fun idea to create kind of a 'collage' with this piece.

That's what I thought you had sent me once, a while ago. It could be pretty educational to show people what sorts of investments yield what degree of results.

Absolutely.

Also: awesome piano, great playing.

The vintage S&S B sounded nice, as did your playing.

A bit of a twang on a few notes here and there, but I don't think I've ever heard any piano, ever, that didn't have a bit of a twang here and there somewhere.

All the best!

Rick

Yes, it’d be interesting to see the progression.

Great!

So happy you've finally had it returned. Congratulations.

I hear a fine voice but I also hear the unevenness that can come from strings that are not quite mated to the hammers, maybe some uneven wear, etc.

I would like to hear the same piece after the hammers are worked on.

While appreciating all the work that has gone into it over the years, I'm still amazed that something that is 135 years old can play and sound so good. Not to mention that someone (probably a person although it could have been a church or something) got that piano new that long ago and I'm sure they were as pleased as we are today.

I have a 1903 grand and I have often wondered who was the original owner and something about all the people that owned it. I was willing to try to track records but there does not seem to be any records at all.

My Steinway book has a reprint of an 1888 price list. It shows the B as selling for $1300.

Wonderful!

Inflation is always hungry that would be ~36k$ today

The tone is ever so more solid now from what you have previously posted. Congratulations!

It is indeed still a work in progress and your fine ears hear that rather well.

We'll need to see how well the tuning holds and then decide how to proceed in this regard, but I have a good feeling about it. There may be like 3-5 pins that need fastening, but other than that it feels good tuning the beast.

As to the hammers matching the strings: Spot on and rather than trying to match the strings to existing grooves by brute force, the hammers will get the appropriate filing and needling treatment next week. They've been uneven before, which is normal for a brand new set of hammers that initially were as stiff as concrete. I've played the piano a lot since the initial voicing sessions last year, so in terms of timing, now is a good opportunity to go about it thoroughly again. I like my hammers a little softer and since I am adamant about not putting any chemicals into the heads, we'll probably need more than one session, which is fine by me.

As I said, it's a work in progress and it's deeply satisfying to se and hear all those step by step improvements, knowing that I haven't reached the end of the journey yet.

I have actually found out that the piano was delivered from the Hamburg factory to Berlin on April 28 in 1887 and that the recipient was a certain Mr. Oscar Agthe. Mr. Agthe was a piano builder and Carl Bechstein's step brother and used to be head of the Bechstein production facilities for more than ten years. He then started working with Steinway and became their representative in Berlin.

I couldn't find any reference about the actual sale back then, but fact is that the piano spent its first decades in a dance school near Stuttgart Germany. For ease of transport the initial elephant legs were replaced with rather sturdy ones, but since that's pure cosmetics, I've decided to leave them as they are.

In 1978 the piano was bought by a very close friend of mine who I first met at the Brussels competition in 1987 where he was participant in the final round. So I've known the piano for almost 30 years and always enjoyed is peculiar tone. For all it's life it has been a true workhorse being played on a daily basis for anything between 6 and 12 hours by a professional pianist, which obviously helped to keep the substance alive. The repairs done were simply a result of regular wear and tear of an otherwise well maintained instrument.

OE1FEU
I am so pleased for you! How wonderful to have a classic piano that you love and that has been carefully restored... (and great piano history story)

Here’s hoping for many wonderful hours with your new piano 😊

OE1FEU

My congratulations for a long time awaited piano, an old love that meets your tastes and expectations. It sounds really nice and well played. Hope you can enjoy it for many lasting seasons. Best!

Beautiful piano OE1FEU. So glad you are helping keep these great old pianos alive.